This past week has been full of excitement, surprises, miracles, and blessings. So much so I'm not sure where to begin.
What better place to begin than Tuesday morning? 6am came quite early that day. Elder Sparks and I laced up our shoes and went for a run. 2 miles just about. We came home, got ready for the day, then headed to Black Mountain where all the leaders of the mission converged for a Leadership Conference. Elder Sparks and I each prepared a training in hopes of helping to inspire our leaders to become greater. I trained on having authentic conversation with others on the street and he trained on having effective exchanges. We did these in a workshop setting where several groups rotated through the various trainings. All in all we each trained 3 times. I think I learned more than the missionaries who received my training as I prepared it and gave it several times in a row. It is true what the Chinese say, "Da teacha learn more den da student." Pardon the phonetics.
Wednesday was part two of our leadership conference. Then Thursday we held a Spanish conference, where all the Spanish speaking missionaries from our mission gathered to discuss Spanish work here in Vegas. The 3 day event was successful. All in all we felt it lifted and boosted the mission. One of the things I am passionate about is not hiding your talents. Christ taught this principle. However, we often interpret this parable to simply mean we must develop our talents. I feel there is another side to it as well. Not only should we develop our talents but we should also teach our talents to others so they can develop what has benefited us as well. It is important that as a missionary we do not take our many talents home with us without first striving to teach the upcoming generation of missionaries everything we know. I felt we accomplished this in the past week through the Leadership Conference and Spanish Conference. There is not greater joy I have felt than when I serve other people.
Friday, we took the new missionaries to the temple. I tell you these many events over the past week to set the stage for the miracle that came our way this week. With our responsibilities the past two weeks have allowed for only a hand full of hours in our area to find, teach, and baptize. This is difficult for us considering we need to have an area that exemplifies each aspect of Preach My Gospel. Ultimately the goal, however, is to baptize. This is our purpose. So, with such a jam packed couple of weeks we had not found anyone new to teach and those we had been teaching were becoming stagnate and all but lost interest. However, last Saturday we received a text message from an investigator whose family we had been teaching for several months. He tells us he wants to get baptized the following Saturday and even told us the time, 6pm!!!!! We did not argue with him. In fact we encouraged him and met with him during the 1 hour we had available each day last week. In our first meeting we discussed the baptismal interview questions and what he could expect from the interviewer. As we made our way through the first couple of questions his son, 13 years old, asked if he could be baptized on Saturday too!!! We were happy to oblige him and asked him to answer the questions along with his father. Saturday at 6pm they were both baptized. The father bore his testimony of the weight he felt lifted from him, of the energy he had, and of the ambitions of starting over again he planned to pursue. He closed his testimony by expressing his hopes that his wife, who was present at the baptism, would follow suit in the next few weeks. This was a miracle week!
It is miracles like these that help me understand that God works in mysterious ways. That the Gospel cannot be forced upon anyone. That patience is a virtue. And that I am in the right place at the right time doing the right thing.
Much love,
EC
"...for the Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be; wherefore, these things are manifested unto us plainly, for the salvation of our souls."
Jacob 4:13
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